James McCann (drugs trafficker)

James Joseph McCann (born 25 March 1939) is a figure who has been linked with Irish republicanism, drug trafficking[1] and the smuggling of arms to the Provisional IRA in the 1970s.

[3] Prominent drugs trafficker Howard Marks was involved with McCann for several years in smuggling hashish from Afghanistan through Irish ports, specifically Shannon Airport, to the UK via Milford Haven in Wales.

[2] He was arrested in the Republic of Ireland in 1979 on a drugs trafficking charge and held in Portlaoise Prison, but was not convicted.

Identified by his fingerprints as James McCann, he was charged with being a member of a criminal gang, with smuggling 1,528 kilograms of hashish from Morocco to England in March 1988, and with possession of two false passports and small quantities of cannabis and cocaine.

[6] In December 1992, after 21 months on remand, McCann was found guilty of participating in "a criminal gang whose purpose was to traffic in considerable amounts of narcotics" and of possession of false passports and quantities of cocaine and cannabis.